This invention relates to storage and display racks and more particularlyxe2x80x94but not exclusivelyxe2x80x94to wire wine racks which may be easily and quickly assembled and disassembled without the need for tools.
For convenience of expression, the inventive rack will hereinafter be called a xe2x80x9cwine rackxe2x80x9d; although, it should be apparent that the inventive rack has many uses other than for storage of wine. The wine rack may have almost any convenient size and shape. In general, the dimensions of a wine shelf might be in the nature of 14xe2x80x3xc3x9748xe2x80x3 and, perhaps 84xe2x80x3 tall. An example of such racks may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,546,887 and 2,622,741.
Regardless of the assembled size, it is desirable to have a rack which may be shipped broken down into its component parts in a relatively small box. Also, it should be very easy to quickly assemble the rack into its useable form or to disassemble it for storage. Once it is assembled, it should be secure and stable.
A particularly useful form of construction which meets these criteria is a rack made of a plurality of preferably cold rolled steel wires which intersect each other and are preferably welded together at each point where the wires intersect. In the preferred embodiment, the wires form an orthogonal matrix to form shelves and panels.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a rack having the features described above. Here an object is to provide such a rack which is especially adapted for wine or bottle storage but which may also be used for other purposes. For example, four rack shelves might provide for wine storage while a fifth shelf might store other things such as glasses, napkins, nuts, chips, and the like. Hence, flexibility of design and usage is desirable.
In keeping with an aspect of the invention, these and other objects are provided by a series of wire panels and shelves which easily fit together without the need for tools. The shelves may be assembled in either a flat and completely horizontal position for general storage or on a slant for wine bottle storage. Once the shelves are in position, a suitable number of A-frames may be secured to each shelf in order to receive rows of bottles between the slanting sides of the A-frame, forming space-efficient storage compartments.